Eritreans, Ethiopians Protest Against United States Sanctions Bill

Eritreans and Ethiopians protesting HR 6600 and S.3199 in Washington (Photo: SM)

Borkena

Eritreans and Ethiopians staged a demonstration in Washington D.C. in opposition to draft bills that are poised to essentially make Ethiopia a U.S. Colony. 

The protestors demanded that H.R. 6600 (Ethiopia Stabilisation, Peace and Democracy Act) and S. 3199 (Ethiopia Peace and Democracy Promotion Act) should be cancelled. 

Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians Americans attended the event. They chanted that draft bills that harmed counties should be cancelled. 

They said that they are targeting the very existence of Ethiopia and that they will harm Ethio-US relations. 

Ethiopian government thinks that if passed HR 6600 will harm the relations between the two countries.

Tomasz P. Malinowski, a congressman from New Jersey, drafted HR 6600 the bill but it has got support from four other congressmen. 

S 3199 was proposed by Robert Menendez, a senator from New Jersey. 

Many Ethiopians believe, as expressed on multiple social media platforms, that the United States has been supporting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an entity that dominated Ethiopian politics and economy for nearly three decades after it came to power in 1991 with support from the United States.

In May 2021, the Ethiopian parliament declared TPLF a terrorist organization after it attacked several bases on the Northern Command Base of the Ethiopian Defense Force in what it called a preemptive attack. 

The TPLF had also attacked Eritrea in November 2021 right after it attacked the Ethiopian Defence force with the aim to internationalise the conflict.